I saw a family today, parents and 2 pre-teen children, all of them shockingly obese. They were walking, or rather waddling, along the road stuffing their mouths with yet more food. They were British, too.
Now, I'm a believer that adults are entitled to do pretty much what they want with their bodies: drink, smoke, extreme sports etc. I post on a rugby forum and some of the injury anecdotes there are pretty bad. But that's adults. (Who pays for it is a different issue.)
But it seems to me that allowing your children to get that obese, in the knowledge - if they understand it - that the child will likely have multiple health problems, and die young, represents child abuse. If it wasn't for the fact that the care system in Britain is terrible, with very poor outcomes, I'd suggest that the children should be taken into care. As it is, I guess there's not very much that can be done. Maybe social services could intervene.
Very disturbing.
Now, I'm a believer that adults are entitled to do pretty much what they want with their bodies: drink, smoke, extreme sports etc. I post on a rugby forum and some of the injury anecdotes there are pretty bad. But that's adults. (Who pays for it is a different issue.)
But it seems to me that allowing your children to get that obese, in the knowledge - if they understand it - that the child will likely have multiple health problems, and die young, represents child abuse. If it wasn't for the fact that the care system in Britain is terrible, with very poor outcomes, I'd suggest that the children should be taken into care. As it is, I guess there's not very much that can be done. Maybe social services could intervene.
Very disturbing.
